Strong Enough
by Val-Creative
Summary: She has to tell Alex about dating Lena for the two months, and come out herself this time. Never did Kara imagine she would be the one to tell her sister she was into girls. (Dating a Luthor too? Clark would definitely need a moment to wrap his head around this.) Before she gets an opportunity, Kara encounters a disaster in National City, severely injured. /Canon AU. Supercorp.


**.**

 **.**

Nothing is better than feeling cozy and warm.

Kara basks in the morning sunlight filtering in through her sheer, ivory curtains, waking up gradually. There's no hurry for her. It's good to have a Friday off. She stays laying out on her dusky lilac pillows, stretching apart her toes, murmuring a low, nonsensical sound when a chiming ring loudly interrupts the peace.

Someone else's fingers loosely grasp to the front of Kara's button-down, fleecy pajamas.

"Is that mine or yours?" Lena whispers, eyes still closed, her mascara smeared and her voice thick with sleep. She's only a few inches from Kara's breathing space, one of Lena's legs tangled with hers, but it's not _enough_. Kara wishes Lena would reach out and press up against her again. She could embrace Kara's waist, rolling into her, sucking and biting kisses under Kara's ear, giggling at the display of affection.

With a groan, Kara shoves away her quilt and climbs out of bed, trudging to the source of the chiming. The warmth disappears from the surface of Kara's skin, and she supposes that's what she gets for walking around her unheated apartment. She's only a rumpled, polka dot-print pajama top and boy-cut underwear.

It doesn't take long to rescue her cellphone out of a jean pocket. The one the DEO specifically assigned her—something about "removing the interference and tracking tech" and "your secret identity" blah blah.

"Alex…?" Kara answers, yawning.

" _Hey, it's Winn. We need you down here immediately_."

The sudden graveness of his tone releases a chill through her. "What's going on? Is something wrong?" Kara's eyes widen, panic edging when she babbles out, "No nono, Winn—where's Alex—"

A yelp on the other end, then some arguing, all garbled up in static feedback.

" _It's me. I'm fine._ " Kara nearly collapses against the kitchen counter-top, tilting her head backwards and touching the space over her heart. " _Sorry about that_ ," Alex tells her. _"There's some thermo-readings we need you to investigate. Might be a bomb planted somewhere in the city._ "

"Where am I heading?"

" _I'll get you the details from Winn when you get here. Over and out, Supergirl._ "

Kara switches off the transmission, quickly glancing over to Lena padding over in one of Kara's bright pink, terry-cloth bathrobes, examining her teeth in the shine of a cleaned pot. She tries to stifle a laugh. They nearly smoked themselves out the apartment after experimenting with a new recipe Kara found online.

After that, it had been late night takeout with a bottle of chardonnay. And lots of cuddling. _More_ than cuddling, Kara admits to herself bashfully, flushing and twisting her fingers together.

She still has to tell Alex about dating Lena for the past two months, and essentially come out herself this time. Never did Kara imagine she would be the one to tell her sister she was into girls. (Dating a _Luthor_ too? Clark would definitely need a moment or three to wrap his head around a _Luthor_ situation.)

And… oh boy, Kara _still_ has to tell Lena that _she's_ …

"Do you know where my shoes are?"

Kara shakes her head, snapping back into focus. "Uhm, by the rug—I think—" she trails off, watching as Lena gathers up her things, pulling her dark, silky hair up into a messy bun. "Lena, you don't have to go—"

"It's fine, Kara," she replies, chuckling and passing her on the way to Kara's bedroom. "I have long work day ahead of me. There's no rest for those of us with a wicked last name, right?" Kara opens her ruby red lipstick-stained mouth to protest, eyebrows furrowed, and is cut off with a shout of " _Is Alex okay?_ "

With an embarrassed start, Kara clears her throat.

"O-oh, uh. _Yeah!_ She's… she's fine!"

Lena reappears in the hallway, donning her pea-coat and sapphire blue, velvet heels. _No, don't stare like an idiot_ , Kara scolds herself. _You've seen her NAKED in your bed, Kara Danvers—what's the matter with you?_

 _It's not my fault that Lena is gorgeous every second of every day, though._

 _Wait—_

 _I'm NOT having a conversation with myself right now._

Kara's cheeks redden. She fiddles with the bottom of her pajama hem, glancing up when the other woman leans in without a particular expression and pecks Kara's jaw. "If you're leaving, then I need to, um…"

"I'll remember to lock your door before I do," Lena insists, grinning and wiping a thumb over Kara's also lipstick-gleaming chin. Kara smiles under her dutiful and playful attention, giving an awkward, high laugh. "But really, you should wash up before you go anywhere. Estee Lauder isn't easy to scrub off."

A firm, decisive nod.

Saying thanks feels more awkward than laughing again, and she forgets about it, hugging and kissing Lena in return when their mouths nudge, sliding and caressing. "Be careful," Lena whispers, frowning a little.

It's an emotion like uncertainty in her sharp, blue eyes. Kara senses the other woman's pulse heighten.

(Nervousness? Or is it concern?)

"What do you mean?" Kara asks, softening her features. She clasps her hands over Lena's shoulders, squeezing too-gently. Lena's only _human_ after all—she's weak and vulnerable and yet much more powerful than Kara at the exact same time. "I'm just meeting up with Alex. It's not that far."

She doesn't feel reassured by the forced quirk of a smile.

"… You can't be _too_ careful, right?"

 **.**

 **.**

Her frustration leaks into the mission, as Kara hovers into the bowels of a high-rise parking garage. She scans the nearby environment with her X-ray vision, impatiently grumbling.

"I'm not finding this thing," she says after a long pause, tapping her comm.-link. Kara's newly scrubbed, raw-feeling lips thinning. "You said the basement level. I'm _here_ in the basement level, and I got nothing."

"No, it's definitely there," Alex insists. "The heat signature matches with readings Winn was talking about."

"Is he there? Can he confirm something?"

"…" An even longer pause. Kara frowns again, the end of her red, Super cape brushing her ankles as she lands to her feet, tiptoes first. Alex then sighs on the other end. "He— _jesus_ , he got up to use the washroom."

A snort.

"Fine. Could it be lead-based?" Kara replies, eyes squinting. "Makes sense on why I can't locate it…"

"That's a possibility. Hang on, Supergirl, don't do anything until we can… …"

She tunes Alex out briefly, flying towards another end of the building's level.

Under the DEO's instructions, all civilians and security guards had been escorted out until the investigation was concluded, and the alleged "bomb" found and shut down. Then, Kara planned on going home to a long, steamy bubble bath and a icy bottle of root beer and calling Lena up on her break for their dinner plans. Her girlfriend mentioned something about this trendy, vegan restaurant.

 _Girlfriend_.

A flutter of warmth rides up Kara's stomach.

"—hey, are you even listening to me?" Alex's voice interrupts, sounding amused. Kara stifles down a bout of laughter, hearing J'onn muttering to Alex in the background about not getting distracted.

Is that—

Kara swoops over to an enormous, metal-looking case lying underneath a minivan. "I think I found it!" she yells into her comm.-link, heating up the padlock chained around it and busting open the lid. "Not so tough, are ya?" Kara chirps out, smiling with all cutesy dimples and triumphantly hoisting the item up.

" _Be careful_ — _Supergirl_ —!"

A sliver of glowing green light peeks out of the lid. Kara feels her entire body tense, her muscles shrinking. And then everything explodes into pitch-darkness, throwing her midair and slamming her against a wall.

There's _agony_. It's in every direction, and it's coming from _inside_ her, too.

For a second, Kara thinks she passed out again. Blood trickles from a cut on her forehead, streaking her left cheek. Is the building still standing? Yes, she pulls herself upright from a collection of twisted, melted steel and rubble. A bomb? Yes, it had been a fiery, huge blast knocking the wind out of her, and _green_ , and…

No…

" _Hahhh_ …" Kara breathes out, cupping her palm over her bleeding, sore abdomen. Her energy drains quickly. Fear douses the earlier feeling of glee, purging Kara's light with icy pain crawling in her veins.

"No, I'm okay… _I'm okay, I'm okay_ …" she repeats, closing her eyes and murmuring under her breath.

"Supergirl? Come in."

Kara's ear-bud, still intact and workable, buzzes with Alex's worry.

" _Y-Yeah_ …"

"What's the status report?" Kara opens her mouth to answer her sister, coughing and watching uneasily as hotter, redder blood pours between Kara's lips, onto the concrete in front of her. "Supergirl, you there?"

" _Mmhm_."

"Kara…" Alex's voice quivers. "It was a bomb full of green kryptonite. There was… it was _a lot_."

 _Rao, no. Don't do this_.

Kara can't listen to her big sister choking back emotions when Alex is too far away from her. When she can't reach her, or comfort her, or tell Alex she was fine and everything was gonna be okay. Because it _had to be_ —

" _I know_."

"… It's inside your body."

Moisture clings to Kara's eyelashes, when Alex's voice cracks in her ear. She stiffly breathes in, feeling mounting, overwhelming dread as the pieces of kryptonite worm deeper in through her wounds, becoming further absorbed.

"… … _I know_ ," Kara repeats, barely keeping from whimpering.

The ground roars underneath her, trembling violently. From a mile or so away, Kara senses crowds of people running away and screaming, as another high-rise building sets aflame and groans as if ready to topple.

"We're getting intel on major explosions across National City—more bombs, _what the hell is going on_ —" Alex yells at no one particular, as the background noise increases on the comm.-link. Kara loses focus for a good minute, vision and ears blaring. "—listen to me, Kara. Uou need to come back to the med-bay and remove—"

Nobody can see her, but Kara shakes her head, slow and stubborn.

" _Can't do that_."

"Now is not the time to be reckless with your life," J'onn barks out, seizing the connection away from Alex. "With how much of the kryptonite shrapnel is affecting your vitals, it'll be a miracle if you survive the next few hours. You _need_ those hours. Head back to the DEO, Supergirl—that's an _order_."

Retreating would be easy. _Yes_ , it would be so easy. Kara thinks about her bubble bath, and Lena's warmhearted, lovely grin in the restaurant's candlelight, and she's scared to death. So, _so_ scared.

She pulls herself together, gulping down a helpless sob building in her throat.

" _Need_ …" Kara exhales, ignoring the tears and blood dripping down her face. "You need to send fire and rescue units. On the northwestern side, back towards Curt Street and Otto Boulevard… I have a city to save."

And taps off the call.

 **.**

 **.**

Buildings keep falling. _People_ are falling, too.

Kara wheezes for air, catching a shrieking, balding man and dropping him onto a stretch of grass. There's no one there to applaud or pay her mind, as citizens of National City grab their families and escape for the main highways, beckoned on by various police cars and heading for less dangerous areas.

Areas without towering infrastructures overhead.

She circles back around, passing over the traffic-clogged bridges, lost in the millions of screeches and weeping and chaos, before flying higher, glancing terrified in the opposite direction.

 _Lena_.

L-Corp appears fine, but the neighboring building smokes and groans under its own weight.

Even from this distance, Kara can clearly witness Lena below, herding several women outside onto the blacktop and shouting for them to run, her face ashy and pinched. Heart racing, Kara swoops low, just as the building collapses, heaving herself underneath and bracing her arms against the wall, managing to save it.

There's blood oozing in her mouth, and in her lungs, and Kara feels her own strength weakening.

The more she exerts herself… _the quicker_ …

"Stop!" Lena cries out, stumbling towards the building's wreckage. Kara doesn't think she's ever been so happy to see those atrociously blue heels. "Supergirl, you need to stop and let someone else handle this!"

It's hard to see through one eye (the one not blinded out with a _sickly, glowy green_ , the same color pulsing noticeably though the blood-vessels on Kara's face)—but her superhero hearing hasn't been dampened. "There's still… there's people trapped inside, I can hear them…" Kara says, gasping and sweating heavily.

Lena's pulse heightens. Her little, severe frown reappearing.

" _Kara_."

Pain lessens for a millisecond, all throughout Kara's body, replacing with a numbing shock. But… _when_?

"You can't die, do you hear me?" Lena raises her voice, fiercely clenching her jaw.

The building against Kara's shoulders groans again, and a younger girl screeches in uncontrollable hysterics within it. Another child yells for his goldfish, and someone else crawls desperately for a window.

"… _I have to help_ ," she murmurs, low and sad.

The kryptonite's influence pierces into Kara's muscles, decomposing them, but without any heat. She feels an absinthian, harshened cold, burrowing into her very core. Even as Lena's hands cradle her face, stabilizing.

"You promised," Lena whispers to her, teeth gritting. A glitter of thawing frost in those blue eyes. "You _promised_ _me_ you wouldn't go anywhere, Kara."

Kara can practically smell the bouquet of carnations on Lena's office desk, and the heady aroma of Lena's perfume when Kara half-embraced her on the loveseat, petting Lena's hair soothingly as her best friend grieved. The memory sparks the lingering bits of Kara's resolve, pulling at the corners of her graying lips.

"I'm right here…" Kara tells her smiling widely, looking her in the eye. She accepts a long, tender kiss.

Maybe it wouldn't be so _bad_ … if it had to end right here.

If it…

 **.**

 **.**

Kara wakes abruptly with a gasp, shooting up into an upright sitting position.

Multiple, yellowed solar lights hum overhead.

She blinks, rubbing her eyes and finding both of them healed. Her insides no longer tightening or screaming in pain.

"Take it easy, Kara," Alex says, brow furrowed. Her hand wraps around one of Kara's lying on the hospital cot. "Don't try moving around just yet; you're still recovering. Do you remember anything that happened?"

"How did… I get to the DEO…?"

"J'onn and Superman took care of it. They found you before it was too late." Alex's fingers feel slick and clammy, and Kara squeezes them with the barest amount of pressure. "Your cousin stayed until you were breathing on your own. He'll be back when he hears you woke up. I promised I'd let him know."

When the legs to the cot-side hospital chair jerks against the floor, Kara re-grasps her sister's fingers.

" _Alex_ —"

"I'll take that apology when you're completely healed from your gruesome and tedious microscopic surgery." Alex offers a thin, lukewarm smile before tugging free. Kara's eyes widen. "Also, someone else we placed in the emergency med-bay has been asking to see you—but only for a half an hour, okay? You need to rest."

"Please, Alex—"

"Whatever it is, it can—"

"It _can't_ wait," Kara insists, grimacing and clutching her abdomen. Her sister tuts and helps her lay back, brushing a strand of honey-blonde hair out of Kara's face. "I should have told you when I figured it out."

Alex's expression shifts into bemusement.

"… Okay?"

"I told you when you… said to me about Maggie for the first time. That you had _feelings_ for her, that… I said I _knew_ what it felt like to keep a part of yourself shut off. To keep it inside." Kara's mouth goes dry, when Alex backs off, frowning deeper. "I… I just _didn't know_ what that would mean for me later. "

"Kara, you're making me a little nervous…"

"No, _no!_ " Kara resists the urge to smack her own forehead. "It's not about how I feel about you and Maggie. Gosh, I think it's wonderful." After another moment, she mumbles, "Do, um… do you remember Lucy Lane?"

"Yeah, her dad was a blowhard," Alex comments, but starting to half-smile.

"But _she_ was…" Kara gestures a little, rolling her neck and smiling too. " _So pretty_ and smart and smelled amazing all of the time, and I remember saying to you that I would date her." When Alex nods, she drags her teeth over her lower lip. "Part of me wasn't… really joking…?"

Alex squints her eyes.

"… You're dating Lucy?" she asks, disbelieving.

Kara makes an awkward, loud laugh. " _No_ , I'm dating Lena," she announces, immediately clapping a hand over her own mouth and gawking as surprise and recognition flits over Alex's face.

" _What_?" she shouts gleefully, hugging Kara. "Oh my god, that's…"

Alex's mouth presses warmly to her ear and Kara can feel tears welling up without her permission.

" _I'm so happy you told me_."

"Thanks…" Kara whispers, swallowing hard and hugging her tentatively with one arm. She glances up, wiping at her eyes, when a new occupant enters through the clear, glass doors. "… … _Lena_?"

"Oh, right," Alex says, as if this is a _normal thing_ to have Lena Luthor in the DEO's med-bay wing. Lena Luthor, in a pair of the med-bay's sleepers and wearing a cast on her right wrist. "We'll talk later," she reminds Kara, going around an exhausted-looking but grateful Lena. "Remember—you got a half an hour."

Even rumpled from a dreamless sleep, without any makeup or a shower, Lena is always gorgeous.

As soon as she's close enough, Kara touches Lena's arm and holds it, examining the cast. A teal-colored scribble along the back of it, with Winn's handwriting. Something about _get better soon, Super-Friend_.

"How long did you know?" Kara asks, dreading the answer.

Lena shrugs at the straightforward question, not appearing upset or _not_ upset.

"Who knows?" she says dully. "I think along the way… I put the pieces together. You were always there, and then, so was Supergirl. Your excuses were transparent… and let's be honest, your glasses weren't much of a secret identity…"

 _Darn it_.

Lena catches Kara's faint, embarrassed wince, smiling close-lipped and taking a rest on the cot.

"I didn't say anything because I was waiting for _you_ to tell me," she explains. "It made sense why you wouldn't share that with me. I wasn't your family. We only started becoming close friends. Telling me could have put your life in danger, and probably mine at the time." Kara doesn't say anything, gazing down at her lap and tracing fingertips over the hardened molding of Lena's cast. "I didn't want to push you to come out as Supergirl while you also needed to come out to your sister as bisexual."

"I like that." Kara beams, staring at Lena. " _Bisexual_. It feels good to say it out loud."

A chuckle. "Imagine how it felt the first time I told someone I was a lesbian," Lena admits, grinning. "It felt like the world _finally_ rolled off my shoulders, if only for a single conversation with my therapist."

"I can only imagine."

At this, Lena slips out her phone reluctantly and sighs. "We're not gonna be imagining much of anything anymore…" Kara stares quizzical until her girlfriend presents the online news article, displaying an amateur and semi-blurry photo of Kara and Lena caught in a tender kiss, surrounded by rubble:

" _SUPERGIRL AND LENA LUTHOR:_ _**GAY AND IN LOVE**_ _?_ "

 **.**

 **.**

At first, Kara rages on and on— " _It's an invasion of privacy! How dare they!_ " —and apologizes endlessly to Lena until they're both irritated by Kara's temper tantrum. She becomes determined to get all of the gossipy tabloids removed, until the DEO gets contacted. Personally by the mayor of National City.

"They are requesting Supergirl for the celebratory introduction of this year's Pride Parade," J'onn informs her.

(And how can she say no, when there's the odd, teeny hint of _approval_ in J'onn's voice?)

Lena's company doesn't lose its stockholders or money, but a few employees walk out. Their jobs are replaced within the next day, with more gracious and professional enthusiasm from their newcomers.

Rumors circulate around National City, with or without confirmation, as a three-day weekend approaches.

She thanks Winn endlessly for his help in modifying this costume, taking off into the skies for the first time since being poisoned by kryptonite. Kara soaks in the bliss, in the _sunlight_ , twirling lazily and breathing in. Her happiness follows her as the ongoers of National City's Pride Parade wave up to her and cheer.

The wind picks up her bright red Super cape, billowing it out and revealing the array of colors underneath.

"Thank you," she says into the microphone handed to her, nodding to their mayor—one of their cheeks painted with the nonbinary flag, and the other with the transgender flag. "I really should be thanking everybody else. For being who you are, and being strong enough for it. I'm not a Gay Pride icon, despite the cape," Kara admits modestly, shifting it and reassured by the echo of laughter and clapping.

"I love who I love, and it's no different from who you love—and for that, we should _all_ be proud of ourselves." From the depths of the massive crowd, Kara spots Alex and Maggie clasping hands and waving. She smiles wider. "I'm so proud of _you_. I'm proud to be a part of National City, and to take part of this community."

Kara pauses for a couple of seconds as the clapping and whistles rise up, tummy going into knots.

She lifts her head higher.

"And… I'm proud of being bisexual," she says softly at first, ignoring the prying, inquisitive stares. "You can put that in your papers tonight, I don't care—in fact, I _hope_ you do." Kara adds, a hint of challenge in her voice, "The world needs to learn that it's not a dirty word. Nothing about our identity and who we love is wrong. It's not shameful nor does it makes you a hero. You're just _you_ , and you're _fine_ the way you are."

 **.**

 **.**

The television's recording warps, as the Pride Parade's occupants stomp their feet and yell joyously.

"Was it bad?" Kara says anxiously, fiddling with a stray popcorn kernel from the big bowl. Her apartment reeks of butter and caramel and Lena's perfume. "I kinda just… started talking…" she babbles, glimpsing Lena shaking her head and laughing on the cushion next to her. "Oh, _Rao_ , it was terrible, wasn't it?" Kara groans, nearly kicking the bowl off her own lap as she slides dramatically on the couch.

Lena rescues the bowl, setting it on the coffee table.

" _Stop,_ " she says, laughing harder and pressing her lips against the temporary tattoo of the bi flag on Kara's cheek. "You did great. Even the cape was adorable."

She tilts her face, as Kara's palm caresses her own cheek tattooed with the various pinks of the lesbian flag. "I'm _proud_ of you too, Kara Danvers," Lena murmurs, humming.

"… let's never watch that again."

"You're a _riot_."

 **.**

 **.**

* * *

 _Supergirl is not mine. I got REALLY emotional while writing this, and in different places and different times of revising. I think it's always gonna hit me in the feels and personally as someone who is LGBT+ and loves my LGBT+ friends/community with all my heart. I wanted Kara to be... Kara, and speak up about how we need to normalize being LGBT+ and embrace ourselves, and aaahhhhh. Not everyone can come out to their family and friends, but you shouldn't be ashamed. Ever._

 _It's funny how I was struggling with filling this prompt "Any, any, let's get one thing straight, I'm not" on the LADIES LOVING LADIES: a femslash comment ficathon via Dreamwidth, and couldn't figure out who to do. I have very strong thoughts on Kara not being straight and Supercorp being a likelihood, so it's perfect!_

 _I hope you all enjoyed the angst and cuteness and my proud lil baby gay Kara! :) Any thoughts/comments are deeply appreciated!_


End file.
